The Bloodstained Barn

Nobody knew who lived at the old farmhouse, and nobody understood how the crops were tended to, or how the livestock in the old barn was always cared for.

The property became a local urban legend. The story goes that the farmer was killed in a freak combine accident, his ghost now haunting the property, continuing to do his usual work as if nothing went wrong.

Kids sometimes frequent the property to mess with the animals or try peeking in windows looking for the farmer. Some sneak out at night, hoping to have a paranormal run in with the farmer's ghost. Unfortunately, nobody has ever caught even a glimpse of the owner, or his supposed ghost. More adventurous trespassers have gone so far as to break into the home to snoop around. They all come back with the same tales of dust covered furniture, undisturbed for what appears to be decades, old radios, and most importantly, no signs of life. The refrigerator, the stove, the sink, all non-operational.

So again, how is it then, that this old farmstead has crops being tended to, and thriving livestock? Who is doing this? Where is everything going?

This has been a question for decades in the small town.

Among other mysteries, the town has become known for having an abnormally large amount of missing persons cases. Some were residents of the town, and others were just people passing through to other destinations. They have had zero success solving any of these cases. This, along with the haunted farmstead tale have of course caused the town to become an attraction for curious tourists, and paranormal investigators... which is exactly what they want.

Long ago, during the towns formative years, farmers took over large swaths of land to make it in this world. In doing so, they drove out various tribes of nomadic settlers that didn't conform to society. As one would expect, conflict broke out, with the farmers and their frontier justice claiming them the victors... or so they thought. The survivors of the conflict devised a plan to enact revenge, using powers that they themselves did not fully understand. Some may call it black magic, others may call it voodoo, but it is something much more sinister. Something of unknown origin that they stumbled upon by chance, and felt it was a gift from mother nature. It spoke to them, and it taught them things. They first used this power to ruin crops. They used it to control storms that razed farmsteads leaving nothing behind. They thrived in this chaos, and so did it. Little did they know however, that it was just using them as well. They had become a pawn, feeding it..them.. with the chaos they were creating.

Their final act of chaos was to be the transference of an entire farmstead's consciousness into the livestock. They thought this would be a fitting end to their vengeance, watching the farmer and his crew live out the rest of their lives as livestock that would eventually be slaughtered and eaten, perhaps by them.

Unfortunately, it had other plans. Having fed off of the chaos long enough, it instead transferred the entire tribe into the animals, leaving them to watch in confused horror as it materialized up from the ground before them, swathed in a black-red haze. It's various shifting forms both terrified and amazed them as they looked on in shock. It first appeared as a horse with tentacles where the legs should have been, and in the blink of an eye had morphed into a large serpent with four goat heads bellowing the same black-red mist as it slithered out of the barn towards the farmhouse.

They don't know what it did to the farmer, or the farmhands. They certainly heard it, and the unearthly sounds echoed through the air for but a brief moment before complete silence fell over the farm. It returned to the barn as a simple barn owl, with it's gaze fixed on the terrified tribe. As it stared at them, it's pupils dilated but did not stop at the eyes. The dilation continued, with both eyes peeling inside out, enveloping the owl leaving an impossible tear in reality right in front of the tribe. Moments later, it crawled out as a gorilla with a massive spider's body.

“Thank you, fools, for releasing me. I have no need of you now, so here you will stay forever. As I believe they say in this world, I guess you bought the farm,” it said with a thousand voices that reverberated through everything including the tribe's new animal bodies.

It...they then walked away, disappearing into the black-red mist. As time passed, the tribe became aware that they had become the farm. The crops, the home, the land, all of it had become connected to them. Meaning they needed to feed it, and so they did, using the cornfields to devour and absorb people when they felt their life-force waning. They didn't enjoy it, but they didn't want to die, so this became their new life.

Because of the feeding, the farmland always looked well kept, and because the old farmer owned the land, nobody ever came to claim the place. The tribe continued to feed off of visitors for decades, wondering what had become of it...them. Where did it go? What was it doing? How could they undo what had been done to them?

Their thirst for revenge almost damned them for all of eternity. One day, an enterprising group of occult and paranormal experts came to investigate. The tribe almost, almost began to attack them before something that was said stopped them dead in their tracks.

“It did this. They did this. This is the site,” said one of the investigators. She peered down at the animals. “You. All of you. You're people in there, aren't you? Make a sound. Do something,” she requested of all of them.

Shocked and relieved at being acknowledged as human for the first time in what seemed like forever, all of the animals let out their respective cries, stomping their hooves, and flapping their wings.

The cacophony was all she needed to hear. “Get the things,” she said, commanding someone much older than her. She couldn't have been much older than 25, but carried herself with the confidence and maturity of someone who had led a kingdom for decades.

After a short while, the older man returned with an oaken box. The silver hardware holding the box together glistened in the moonlight. As he opened it, the objects inside also reflected the moonlight brilliantly throughout the old barn.

“You are all victims of it. Of them. They're out there now doing unspeakable things, causing unspeakable chaos. This is your fault, but you are not to blame. Your bodies are long gone by now, but your spirits remain,” she said sternly while making eye contact with each and every animal in the room.

“I can release you, but you must be willing, and you must lend yourselves unto me to stop it. To stop them,” she said, reaching for a silver orb that was in a purple velvet pouch inside the box.

“The powers that bound you here, and the powers that you gathered here will set you free. We will draw it... them back here. We will send it back where it belongs. I do not know what will become of you afterwards, but you will be free,” her voice trailed off as she stared intently at the animals.

The animals exchanged glances and could feel each other's thoughts and wishes. The sudden interaction with humanity was all it took for them to fully acknowledge the error of their vengeful ways. They slowly approached the girl, doing their best to nod and confirm that they were willing.

Candles were lit. Strange, yet familiar things were burned in oaken bowls. Words they had not heard in decades were uttered by the girl as flashbacks of all of their vengeful use of it's powers came rushing through them all. It then came rushing out of them into the barn. Soon, the entire barn was aglow with that black-red mist as they felt themselves being ripped from the livestock. As their spirits entered the silver orb, the livestock, now normal animals again, fled in every direction, confused at what was taking place.

The old barn began to twist in unnatural ways, taking on rubber-like properties while the ground beneath the girl began to ripple as if a light breeze was passing over a calm lake. It appeared. They appeared. This time in the form of a hawk with a wingspan as large as the barn, tentacles where the feathers should have been. It's beak peeled back as a new creature crawled out of the mouth; A humanoid as tall as the barn with no features. No face. No mouth. A black-red void in the shape of a human. It grabbed the sides of the barn, ripping it down around the girl while her assistants fled. It began to pull the surrounding land into itself as the ground became like quicksand under the girl. As she slowly sunk into the ground, it.. they let out an inhuman cackle that sounded like thousands of whips cracking against chain-link fences.

“What did you think you would accomplish, girl?” it bellowed as she became submerged up to her waist in the chaos below her.

“This.” was all she said as she smirked and pulled the silver orb out of the velvet bag.

“DO NOT DO THAT” it.. they shouted with such a piercing, shrill shriek of terror that it felt like thousands of nails had pierced her body. The remnants of the barn turned into tendrils, grasping in vain at the silver orb as she dropped it in front of her into the miasma below. It sunk down, stretching the fabric of reality with it, pulling it..them down with it. It's efforts proved futile as it sank to the very bottom of the opening. It let out indescribable noises as it continued sinking.

Then, a sudden cracking sound pierced through it's cries as the silver orb flew out of the opening, ripping everything out with it like a slingshot. It.. they were sent hurtling into the sky, beyond Earth's atmosphere into space where they were ripped and scattered throughout the galaxy into stardust.

As the silver orb re-entered the atmosphere, it dissolved, releasing and scattering the spirits of the tribe all over the Earth. They became the plants, the ground, the water, and the earth itself. They were free from them. Free from their own vengeful prison. Distant as they all were, they could still feel each other, and it gave them a great sense of relief.

As dawn came, the girl gathered her belongings. “You know if you idiots keep running away, I'm going to have to find better assistants. You ran faster than the damn animals. You're lucky I didn't need anything!” she said, scolding her assistants as they hopped in their van and drove off towards their next encounter with the unknown.

“I'm sure glad we managed to find them. That could have gone much worse. Sometimes you really have to wonder how we get so lucky,” she said while turning up the radio. “and you all thought I was crazy for studying those weird books for so long.”

As they continued down the road, they saw some kids on bikes riding in the opposite direction. The kids reached the farm. Or so they thought. There was nothing there anymore. The house, the crops, the old barn, all gone.

“Hey where the hell did everything go?” shouted one of the kids. “I thought we were going to see some ghosts. All that's here is a damn field!”

The kids all bickered back and forth as they continued down the road to find a new source of entertainment, unaware of the disaster they narrowly missed.